Successful physician-scientists with unconventional PhD topics...

[okemba]

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Hey guys.

I just came across this woman named Martha Herbert, and I'm honestly kind of baffled by her career.

http://www.marthaherbert.org/biography/
http://www.massgeneral.org/research/researchlab.aspx?id=1260

Dr. Herbert earned her medical degree at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Prior to her medical training she obtained a doctoral degree at the University of California, Santa Cruz, studying evolution and development of learning processes in biology and culture in the History of Consciousness program, and then did postdoctoral work in the philosophy and history of science. She trained in pediatrics at Cornell University Medical Center and in neurology and child neurology at the Massachusetts General Hospital, where she has remained.

So her PhD was in the humanities, and eventually at some point she developed an interest in autism, and started publishing biomedical research papers. I can't find any years on her education, so I have no idea on timelines.

http://www.marthaherbert.org/publications/

I can't really formulate specific questions here, but... you guys have any general comments or thoughts on her past? Seems rather unusual.

 

[StIGMA]

She is a physician publishing clinical research papers. Her PhD interests are very much in line with what she chose as a clinical specialty. Her PhD, ostensibly involving studying learning processes, has considerable overlap with her clinical interest in autism spectrum disorders.

She did not do a combined MD/PhD program where the focus is mostly on biomedical research. There are many MD's who have done PhD's in non-biomedical research fields. It is uncommon but definitely not unusual. Look up Ezekiel Emanuel.